See my other self portraits here
I think that this one is starting to look more like me. I’ll ask my wife and see if she agree’s
It’s very light – i stopped at HB – i know that it might need some more contrat, but every time i pass on to the soft pencils with my self-portraits, everything seems to go horribly wrong! I suppose i need to be more careful in putting in the darker points.. Maybe I’ll be a little more couragous next time !
Try working with a single 2B pencil and sharpen it to a long point using a knife. I find this particular one to be the most flexible. Keep going, your progress and dedication is impressive!
Thanks – I’ll try and see how it works!
I start light and add dark, my secret is find the darkest part of the face and that’s as dark as I will go. I find all the other places that are that dark as well and make sure they match. You are awesome, my hero and dedication <3
I like! This is excellent already.
Here’s some tips, if you transfer the same level of contrast to your sketching, it can seem daunting and the areas of dark can look too ‘heavy’. Just simplify the darkest tone, focusing on the center. And if you could, keep your darkest tone in a neat form.
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try seeing where it gets me next time!
I think you should try working in charcoal. You could try charcoal pencils first or just leap straight into sticks of willow charcoal. The majority my life drawings were either ink and wash or charcoal because I wanted that control over tonality that the charcoal provides. I think you could have a lot of success with that medium.
Good idea. I’ll try that.
This may seem counterintuitive, but you might like to think of your art in terms of what you’re trying to express rather than how you are creating it. I think there is a lot of expression already in your pencil strokes and you might just want to play with that a bit instead of concentrating on dark vs light or on what materials work best. Play with whatever materials are at hand until you discover something that really makes you want to keep moving in that direction. There’s no “right” or “wrong” to experimentation. But the only way you will find your own style is to let yourself play with your art.
I have to say it looks much more natural. It all flows together to form your image. I really like it.
Thanks! I’m really happy with it too! – The next one will be a little worse – I’m counting on a two step forward one step back approach – Let’s see it that’ll hold water 😉
I don’t know what you look like but it seems to look like you, if that makes sense.
Haha – Somehow, it does make sense!
Thanks